InsaneJournal

Week One; Friday
Who: Maggie and OPEN (Can be a narrative)
When: Friday Evening, nearing closing time
Where: Barking Spider Tavern


Maggie smiled as she finished pouring Jacob a glass of his favorite Pyramid Hefe weizen. A slice of lemon, from the batch she had cut earlier that night, was placed on the edge of the glass before she pushed it toward him. Jacob was a regular, had been for at least a decade Maggie would surmise. He'd been a fisherman for years of his life, making the trip up to Alaska to make his money before turning to his wife back in Seattle. He was a good man, perhaps spent a bit too much time on the stool, third from the right every weekend but at least he was a kind man and Maggie only had to call him a cab every once in a while. He missed his wife who had died the previous year, Maggie understood that and was more than willing to let him spend his time in the bar, watching tv, talking with the rest of the regulars.

A surrogate family of sorts. Perhaps dysfunctional but Maggie understood the need.

Drink passed on, Maggie took a small towel that was tucked into the waist band of her apron and wiped at a few spots on the bar top. Always moving, always cleaning up where she could. Maggie figured that if she stopped, she'd never be able to start up again. Exhausted as she was. Her eyes strayed to the clock on the wall, only an hour or so to go. Last call in half an hour. Then the drive back to the towers. Check on Sophie. And sleep. Oh sleep. That was what really called to her right now. She tried to not let that show though, kept the small curve to her lips as she bustled around behind the bar, but her eyes with their faint shadows tended to show just how tired she was.

Maggie had sent home Jonathan hours ago. He needed his rest far more than she did and it was a light Friday night, at least by this point it was. She also hoped he could at least stop by the apartment and make sure Sophie was inside and not... well Maggie didn't like to think about where she could be if not safe at home. But such was the fact of life when living with a teenager who was far too smart for her own good. Far too smart.

"Maggie when you going to sing for us again?" The question was called out from an old timer in the back at a table who was sitting with a few old friends. They'd been hashing out the fate the Mariners this season for the better part of the night but a song drifting through the background had reminded them of a time when there had been live music at the bar far more often. Maggie knew it had been a draw, but she couldn't bring herself to find others to play... It just didn't seem right when it wasn't Bastian. Maggie merely shook her head at the old men and offered the usual response. She hadn't been much of a singer to begin with and they'd all been far too kind to put up with it the few times that she had attempted it.

They meant no harm, but no matter what happened in her life now, she was all too easily reminded of better times. Happier times that could never quite be had again. She'd almost grown used to it... and that was scarier than the prospect of never being as happy as she once had again.

Only another hour to go.